March 2020 has been an interesting month (and it hasn't finished yet)!

In less than 3 weeks we are all beginning to experience a new world - a new way of working - perhaps a new future normality.

And one of the key learnings that everyone is taking from this is: if digital wasn't already a large part of your life, it is now (in both home-life and work-life - and in fact those two seem to be blending too!).

"Digital Transformation" has been a buzzword for many companies - but there have been many in the more traditional B2B sectors where the old established ways of doing business have been hard to break; where face-to-face has always been the norm.

In these businesses, digital transformation has been slow to be accepted. It has been common to hear justifications for this, such as: "this is just how we do business" and "our customers prefer interacting with us this way". And to a certain degree, that has been true ..and, whilst there has been a recognition of the need to evolve, there has to date been no urgency to do so.

Well, in just 3 weeks, that landscape has arguably now all changed - and the urgency for change is now overwhelmingly compelling; those who have not embraced digital transformation will now probably be racing to do so.

This doesn't necessarily mean racing out to get your entire business onto e-commerce tomorrow. It is about thinking where, in your various customer touchpoints, the intervention of digital could help you right now - and then starting there and building a roadmap of your digital journey from that start point.

It is also about taking your customer on that journey with you. Suddenly changing your entire business world into a digital one may be too big an immediate step for your customers too. So it could be as simple as starting with the elements that will enhance your current interaction with them, such as a customer portal upon which you can start to add "features" that give your customers added value.

The exact answer will depend on your business, your current digital "status" and the appetite (from both your business and your customers) to embrace digital as a necessity for your business.

On this latter point, the past 3 weeks have arguably altered that mindset and accelerated the compulsion for change. Its time to act.